The Pass
by InTrasnition64
Summary: Johnny Smith is being used by a hidden third party who are after Janus' employers While his niece is used as a decoy.
1. Chapter 1

Johnny Was enjoying the early spring day, When he noticed a loud rumble from the mountain across the lake, seeing the dust rising from that direction he picked up a full speed run to his range rover. It was I- 5 High up in the pass that led to the valley in which his home town Cleaves Mills was located. He drove quickly into the pass hoping he wouldn't find a major mess. He had rented a cabin nearby for a few days after a case he had helped Walt with, had garnered renewed intrerest in the press. He sought to have a little peace and Quite. Hearing the moutain rumbling after the heavy rains He knew that the hiway area was some place he had to go there's be people who needed help. Suddenly he was enveloped in a disorienting cloud of dust. The sun filtereing through the dust and the trees a sureal scene around him as he pulled to a stop Hearing the sound of a rumbling comming closer he also heard something else!  
Hoof beats! and this horse was running in terror! there was a shape that was comming faster that lightning from the cloud of dust! As a horse swept up and the next thing he knew It rose and leaped into the air. Johnny, Looked up at the belly of the animal as it leaped into the air. Easily clearing his SUV. The horse carried a rider Who looked back at the pass behind them. they were moving quickly, he turned and saw why slamming his Range Rover into reverse, he barely manages to get out of the way of the huge slab of stone that was fifty yards behind the horse and rider came rumbling by. The drive way of a near by farm being blocked by the huge slab as it slid by comming to a rest a few yards away. The horse and rider escaped the stone by jumping a fence. into a near by field. Suddenly they were surrounded By suits and Johnny realised that The fence thing was a mistake on their part that was Harlan Ellis' place. The rider slid off their horse. What happened next Johnny actually found himself lauging about The men who had surrounded the rider tried to hassle them. The rider stood looking at them as the horse moved off, to a safe distance. "Boys you really need to lighten up. I'm not intentionally tresspassing here." The rider said. "Do you have a weapon?" the lead security guard repeated. "NO!" They came at the rider guns drawn. "Way out of line boys." Johnny said as one of the men roughtly grabbed at this person, who agily deflected him.  
easily dodging away The horse looked up and stamped a hoof. "Bubba, that's not very neighborly Now I'd like to leave without having a fight. But if you insist on combat I'll oblige you." The rider said. Johnny got a good look at that rider now. This was going to be interesting. Then Janus showed up. "Gentle men, I see you have been hassling tourists again. " He began. "Take it easy Gramps I haven't hurt them... Yet." The rider said. " Yes, Ranger Riley, I can see you haven't. An incredible amount of restraint on your part since these men can be extremely agressive. My applogies." He said, then sent the security staff off in other directions. THe Sheriff will be here shortly was there anyone else in the pass?" He asked worriedly. Pat smiled "Not that I saw. I always figured the Mountain would show discoutresy one day Too bad I lost my truck, Got a flat then the herd broke loose. I was luck to get My horse out of there. Lost everything else though." She said still eyeing the men in front of her. "Gentlemen would you please retire to the barn, I'm sure Markus can find you some less dangerous things to do. Harlan Ellis smiled. "Ranger Riley after two years you're still such a warrior. " Ellis said. Pat nodded. "Yeah well two years in the hills then six months in Mexico I think I came out alright." She said. Harlan Laughed. Pat remounted her horse. and Ellis drove back toward his house Johnny called Walt on his cell and then drove back to the cabin. "You might want to be out about Miller's spring road, you newest deputy will be headed to town that way." He said. "My what?" Walt began. Johnny Smiled as he hung up. He returned to the cabin, and began to make lunch when he felt a sharp sting in the back of his neck. He pulled the bloody thorn out of his neck and looked at it, blinking then fell. The last thing he remembered was hearing a soft hum in his head similar to a busy signal. Then went dark. 

Walt sat in his office, He remembered Johnny had told him one night he fully expected to be either tricked or otherwise coreced into ruining anyone who might be able to beat Stillson. "So what are you thinkin, John?" Bannerman asked. "That it's time that I (Pause)... " Johnny looked at Walt wearily The psychics eyes looked tired The two men looked at one another. Walt knew the end of that statement was he looked out the windshield, "Janus been to see you?" He asked. "And some one from Foster's side." Johnny confirmed. He looked sadly at Walt. Who saw the weariness in his friend's face, the two men looked at the rain falling outside the car. "So where are you going to go?" Walt asked him. Johnny sighed." I don't know. I do know I can't stay here." The psychic looked at him.  
Both men looked out into the rain. "You know Sarah and JJ aren't going to want you to do this.  
Hell, I don't want you to do it either ." Bannerman said sadly. Johnny sighed. "Yeah I know." Johnny replied. "But I have to choose between you, Sarah and JJ, and my self." Johnny added. " I'm choosing our family." He said sadly. The sheriff looked at his friend's face and saw pain and weariness. "You sure staying in a safe house for awhile wouldn't at least..." Johnny's expression stopped him. "No, I should have left after the steak house fire Walt." Johnny told him. Bannerman found himself torn between the feelings of victory at actually having his family back and the sorrow having to watch Johnny leave, knowing he'd never be back. That all the fix up and repair Johnny had been doing on his home, was for some one else. Walt seemed to feel that when it started. When Johnny had asked him for help rebuilding the deck, off the ground floor guest room. He knew Johnny was going to leave, at that time he'd have helped remodel the whole house if Johnny would have been gone the next day. Then something else happened along the way. Now knowing that Johnny was leaving Walt felt his own heart crying out. He looked at Johnny who sat looking out the wind shield of the cruiser, into the rain. Then the case interfered and for a few hours at least. Things were what passed for normal. He later dropped Johnny off at home, and The psychic trudged up the drive way, and Walt watched him. He sighed as the front door closed. "Good bye John." He said. The next day Sarah and JJ arrived at Smith house to find Johnny was gone. He hadn't packed anything, the house was just as he'd left it. But a week went by and the man hadn't come back. Jj finally sneaked into the house and put an electric candle in the window of the attic above the drive way. It was then that he and two other kids stumbled onto the Shrine of The Dark Ranger as Vera Smith had left it. Pictures of her grand niece and many horse show robbons and trophies lined shelves and walls. her diploma from the DSP academy even a real Texas Ranger's badge. a pair sleigh idetical twin beds and several other things denoting these two were not from Maine. "OH WOW !" The boys said. "You are Johnny's son, so you are related to ... HER!" Tom said, as he and JJ and mark Looked around Then one of the boys stopped. "Hey we need a warrior Johnny left, and Now we need a warrior What if we tried that summoning thing Like from that movie on TV?!" The other two looked at each other. Jj looked at him. "That's witch craft! Tom I told you My parents don't know and I'm not..." Then he looked at something finding a copy Of Some one's BOOK OF SHADOWS. It was laying opened to "Summmoning a person". And he looked at the others. "We meet back here on Saturday night Everyone get this ingredients list and get what you can. Meet me at the tunnel enterance We're giving Johnny the rest of the week. If he isn't back by then we do the summoning." He said. The boys quietly left the house.

Greg Stillson was in shock. He was well behind Steve Foster in the polls and Foster was actually being polite about this. Stillson looked at his watch. Then at the television.  
He left it off. Not turning it on save for the stock market reports.At every photo op or speach someone always brought up the subject of Johnny Smith. Every tabliod carried a different story none of it good for him, not any of it good for Foster either. But now the press had a new target. "DARK RANGER BANNISHED BY TEXAS GOVERNOR!" "Thank God for idiots like Perkins!" Stillson sighed as he setteled behind the desk. This was going to be a tough campaign. Now Stillson began to think about this. it could save his entire campaign if Foster could be put under suspicion for Smith's disappearence. He thought about it and then began writing. The result was something of a surprise even to him. Janus came in. "Well our spies say no one has Johnny Smith. But that they cannot determine is that is good news or really bad news." There are no new graves in the usual out of the way places and there's nothing to say that Smith, didn't just leave on his own." Janus said calmly. "Everyone takes a vacation. Mr. Smith probably needed a rest more than most of us He'll turn up." The power broker added calmly. Greg looked at him. "So how do we play this?" Stillson asked. "I wish I knew." Janus responded. "Johnny Smith has tossed me something I didn't expect." Greg looked at the veiw out the window. He sighed. He couldn't stand the thought of losing all this and he needed to think this through very carefully .

Johnny woke up looking up at the ceiling. He tried to lift his head and found it way to much effort. He could hear some one arguing beyond his sight. He tried to hold on He recognized one voice. "He knew Janus Murdered Ellis' daughter. I think he could be far more useful to us alive. Johnny Smith's ability is solid 100 genuine he could help us get the people behind Mr. Janus." The familiar voice said. He couldn't hold out any longer and Johnny felt himself slipping into darkness again. The man and woman who stood there staring at each other. "How can we do it?" The other asked. "We need to get objects Starting with Janus and then working back along known associates, We will eventually find the employers Of Malcom Janus." She told the man who was standing next to her. Johnny slept deeply and The man looked at her. "You'd better be right Ms. Caldwell." He said. She smiled "I am." She replied. The man walked away. He was met by three other men outside the lab."So What do you think?" A man in a general's uniform asked. " From what I saw from Smith's mind he has seen what that other psychic had in contact with Stillson. But he has a great deal more information. Appearently his future self knows more about this matter, than he was telling but he's become twisted, Psychotic. But there's another way to get to that furure self We need Zurnin and Matsuma." He said. The two men looked up. " Our agents have the cane." The woman who came up to them said. They looked at the cane it had been found in Janus' last base. Before his men could move any of the files they found the cane. And another psion, had gotten into the mind of Johnny's future self the confused images of the day the destruction of Washington DC happened. Zurnin and Matsuma, will be able to get into the Future Smith's head and give us the how and why. While the Johnny Smith in our lab, can give us Janus' employers."General Halstead looked at the man asleep in the lab. "You are giving this country a second chance He said looking at Johnny Smith.

"What should we do with him after we're done with him?" A voice asked. "You have to be kidding with the dark ranger and cordell walker related to him?" Halsted said looking at the bother man. "If you do unto him you had better dig a hole for yourself Because his relatives will bury you. He saves this country he goes free."

Pat Riley looked up at Walt's face The Sheriff had nothing to go on the cabin was as neat as a pin. Even Pat had nothing to show for a thorough search of the cabin. Pat however noticed something at last! The missing blanket and a long blonde hair on the floor. Then she found a thorn on the floor the thorn had blood on it. Bannerman looked at Pat's examination of a rug that showed the place where Johnny had fallen "He'd been rolled into a blanket and carried away. Strangely it was almost a motherly thing he was handled very gently." Pat told him. "So, what is the next move? " He asked. Pat held up, the blonde hair she had collected." We find out who this Blonde lady might be." Pat replied. Walt looked at the well cleaned cabin. "What about the Gunfire?" He asked. Pat looked at him."Someone tried to keep whoever this was from getting him." She replied. "They were too late But seeing a movement at the window they took a chance and fired. Who ever was here was killed or wounded the other party cleaned the place up." Pat surmised. "But they missed a few things." Walt smiled. They left the cabin behind, and Walt took one last look around. Pat had spotted something in the grass by the front steps "Hmmm." She stopped and lifted a ring from the grass A man's ring The golden band showed a military insignia on simulated saphire. "The shooter was army." She said. Walt looked at Pat's ice blue eyes. She knew he had been wondering about this ever since Danbury's assassination. She too had been wondering. "I was at Danbury's autopsy." She told him the shot that killed him was too precised for a drunken headcase. " Walt stiffened. "You Why you?" He asked. Riley and Shereidan exchanged glances. "Where is this investigation board My uncle had up in his basement?" Pat asked. The sheriff began to wonder What two Texas Rangers knew about the events around his neck of the woods.

The future Something was happening what could be going on in the past that could be doing so much? Johnny had been in this cell for nearly ten years jj had taken Wey, and escaped as he had told them. The people who had him at the moment seemed to have forgotten he was there at all. Someone had been slipping him as much food as they could. Something was happening, in the past changing in this end of the time line. Ever since that strange Little Japanese guy had shown up Johnny had felt like he had given him as much as he could but the memories he had kept shifting. Matsuma told him to write down as much as he could remember. He did and everytime something new came he wrote it down in the secret journal in his cell. Johnny was remembering faces. people, he had no idea who they were until recently the camp administrator, was one of these faces! He was one of the men Johnny had seen in his visions from before. Why did the people here keep him alive? It was almost as if they feared him for some reason or feared someone else. "How is he this morning?" Someone asked outside the cell. "He's been quiet enough." The guard replied. "Open it up Gifford, want to run some more tests." The cell door opened and Walt stepped inside looking coldly at the man in the corner of the cell. He looked at Johnny's face. So it's true after all. Something was changed some where in the past. Johnny was showing signs of some sort of reversal of events. Johnny looked up at him. It was clear Walt held him responsible for Sarah and the twins dying in the initial attack on Washinton DC. But the signs of this reversal were hopeful he might still see his wife again. " Get up." he said coldly "Gifford wants you in the lab." Johnny quietly complied. Whatever was happening He had no choice but to try and find out what it was. Walt thought about beating his charge but he too wanted to know what was going on. He led Johnny out of the cell and across the compound. Half way there Johnny stopped. he hadn't really noticed it before But his eyes were no longer clouded over. Walt looked at him, then harshly yanked the rope." Move it!" Johnny staggerd a step forward and them obediently followed. Gifford looked him over, Then the techs strapped him down to a table Johnny offered no resistance. Gifford smiled at the camp administrator. There's a definite reversal of his injuries He's no longer blind. This may mean that something has happened in the past to change certain events." Then a familiar voice said "Keep monitoring him see it you can find out what's changed." Then the other man handed Gifford, something and left. Gifford returned to the lab. Outside Walt went back to his quatrers and found Sarah making lunch for him. He stood there frozen for a moment. Then knew something was definitely happening.

The Past :Walt Bannerman arrived home to find Sarah and Pat in the kitchen making some dinner as they talked over the events of the day. Kim was playing with JJ. "It's funny at a horse show, on my way here I was packing up and found this cane in the river, I took it to Lost and found and didn't think anything about it. But I saw a photo someone took of my uncle, back when he first woke up and he had the same type of cane." Pat said. Sarah looked at Walt who stood there in the kitchen door even Jj and stoped playing his video game. Walt had told Sarah about Johnny tossing his cane into the potamac. "Where was this horse show?" Walt asked. Pat looked at him. "Uh DC I think." Pat replied She She showed Walt the journal entry. " I kept the cane I guess because There was no one at the show grounds to turn it into. " She said. Walt looked at Sarah. Jj only a few weeks ago had admitted to casting a summoning. At Smith house. Pat smiled . "Here I am." She smiled. "It wasn't until I saw the same cane in that photo of my uncle that I began to think about things here." She said Walt nodded. JJ smiled as he went back to his game. The boy smiled he knew that some where out There Johnny was well aware of what he had done. and was grateful for it. "Well we need to find out where John is and What's happened to him" Walt told her. Pat nodded. Riley and Sheridan were a Godsend and maybe the answer to this threat his friend had seen.

It became clear to Johnny that he wasn't so much a prisoner of his captors, as a protected asset. The featureless corridors of the building where he was being kept were like a maze he couldn't tell one from another. as he was led to an office by the three soldiers who guarded him.dressed in a light blue jumpsuit He wasn't chained. Finally he met General Ryan Halstead. "Good morning Mr Smith I hope you slept well." Halstead smiled. "What do you want from me?" He asked. Halstead nodded. " Right to the point I like that. I want the people who killed general Hallsey, and the remote veiwing team. The people behind Malcolm Janus!" The general told him. Johnny felt dizzy in that moment he had never even thought of this. It seems to me that all these people do is destroy everything they touch. Now I fugre that if we can begin with this powerbroker and find out who's behind him that any threat they pose could be ended once and for all. But we had to get you out of Janu's reach. That man has a cold calculating mind. He's even gotten away with high treason." Halstead continued And we believe that he's got someone working for him or in some kind of similar set up to this one and is using their abilities to help him plan his every last move. using an enabled person or group of people to set into motion terrible a devastation on this country." Johnny nodded. Halstead looked at a file before him. I've taken the liberty of doing a geneaology of your family taking special note of the relatives in the past who were outcasts and the execuitions etc. It would figure to me Mr. Smith, that since you and your father both have this ability that your family tree has a great number of those who paid the price of that power in the past." Halstead told him. "I was right. There are numerous individuals in here that were often hunted and or killed for the same psychic ability you have. Johnny's head came up When Halstead added. "There have been and still are others in your family like you. One in particular has disappeared from a mental Hospital three years ago, after the Administrator of that facility met with Mr. Janus." The general told him. Johnny felt the dizziness return he sat in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk from the general. "Others like me?" He managed slowly. There's one other but her ability hasn't completely manifested yet." Halstead told him. And after what Perkins pulled I doubt even Janus could find her.

In fact Janus was having a great deal of trouble. His secret might well be out the cedar ridge mental health facility was raided by a team from Denver International! Jason Cole was gone! Taken from his cell by those who were there to liberate the political prisoners of hundreds of senators and others corporate whistle blowers and witnesses to crimes committed by powerful people who would soon find themselves under threat of legal prosecution they all were calling him endlessly. "What has happened?" He asked Nathan Taylor, the administrator, Of Cedar Ridge, looked at him. "It was a professional raid. I think they got someone on the inside and their spy identified the undocumented inmates and sent information back to a team on the outside. But how could anyone have found us out I have faked everyone of these files the state health department never questioned a thing. But when this team hit us, They took everyone All of the stock for the next sale even the Political prisoners. that every senator for the area had sent here. The entire network is exposed." Taylor began. "Well we'll just let things cool down for a while and begin again in a few years." Janus said as he turned to Taylor. "Right now you need to leave I'll take care of the files." Taylor got up to leave the office but instead of going out a door he opened a tunnel. Janus looked at the passage way and sighed. As the FBI arrived, he strode non chalantly down the tunnel behind Taylor Closing the door behind him. The files burst into flame on the desk and water made the fire burn hotter. The desk the file cabinets everything was slagged! Papers burned and Janus figured the case would stall after a few weeks a month at most. He had a thought in the back of his mind " Johnny Smith, is out there some where."

He returned To Washington DC to find that his employers weren't at all happy with this. Janus smoothed the ruffled feathers and told them not to worry" A single facility doesn't matter, there are lots of others. Taylor was the one who botched the handling of his facility hiring outsider is always a risk." He said. "In Nathan's defense, He never failed to do a background check. It's just the background on this person was well set up before hand. " He told them laying the blame clearly on Taylor's shoulders. The men at the table looked at Taylor and then at Janus. "He at least made sure there was no proof linking any of the liberated prisoners to you." Janus said There was a short discussion of the men at the table. "Thank you Mr. Janus you may go." He left Taylor looked back at the men at the table. "Mr.Taylor Did they take Jason Cole?" the man at the center of the table asked. "They did." He replied. The next sound heard was a single gunshot Taylor was dead. "Gentle men some one is tracking us hitting our system and they have just scored impressively, we must find out who this organisation is and stop them." The rest of the enshadowed faces at the table nodded in agreement. while Taylor's body was hauled away. They rose form their seats Then walked away. They all knew that someone on the inside had betrayed them all had infiltrated their organisation and now was working to eliminate them. "Gentle men we should meet next at our base in Peru, In one week We may have to start setting up plan b Just in case Mr Janus his puppet Greg Stillson become too weak to carry out our plans." The leader said then the men went off one at a time into the shadows. Each man leaving through a specific door. In the silentce that followed a dark shape moved in the room and began taking the glasses from the table and packaging them carefully. in special cylinders. Pens a forgotten Pair of Glasses anything was fair game to the shadow that moved through the dark. They soon vanished. Once outside the shadow took their haul and passed it to a dark colored sedan the driver went the opposite way of the shadow and the parcel was passed through a carefully planned network to college student on a hiking trip in the sierra Nevadas . The parcel was left in an old mine shaft entrance Here was it's final destination. a man came up and took the parcel and went into the mine and to the lab where Johnny Smith was being held. General Halstead looked at Johnny's expression. as the man sat in the chair to which he was restrained. Smith had led them right to the prisoners held at Cedar Ridge. He was scared, waking up in a place like this, Smith had a right to be scared. He didn't know what he was being used for. "General we have the new package from Knightshade." The man who came forward and handed the case to the General. Then he turned and walked away. Halstead Smiled as he held the parcel. This could be what they were waiting for! He turned to look at the frightened man in the chair, on the other side of the glass.

Pat Riley was giving Janus a head ache bordering on a biblical plague. The former Texas Ranger had skills his people didn't have. She was actually having fun with this In the past few weeks she had ruined plans of the Power broker in several areas including the attempt to kidnap the son of a local bussiness man who was refusing to play ball and sell his business to a competitor. Riley He snarled as his latest assassination attempt on the Dark Ranger actually ended in a chase thought Cunnick state natural area That left the local hitters he hired tided here and there among the trees. His employers had questioned the need to kill the this woman. So he decided to back off. Riley was doing more dammage than Smith, ever had and his employers worried about their own butts, had disappeared. He realised he and Stillson were abandoned. He looked At Stillson as the younger man sat at his desk. He was looking at the files before him being appointed to the President's special council investigating the Cedar Ridge Incident. Nathan Taylor was dead he knew that much FBI had found the administrator of the mental hospital, in shallow a grave. He had been Greg's friend.


	2. Chapter 2

The Pass 2 (Pheonix AZ. Three months Later)  
Pat Riley stood outside the Ware house they had been so close to finding her uncle. Walt had sent her with Purdy who had gotten a phone call about his Ward's having been seen by a couple of kids The boys said that he had been tied in a chair. Johnny Smith had disappeared from a safe house in Maine three months ago. The teens had puit the Video they took on Utube. The FBI immediately Jumped on it calling Purdy and Walt Who assigned Pat and Kim to the Reverend's protection. Johnny The ware house had been located thanks to the boys getting video or the whole area the one boys dad a conspiracy theorist refudsed to let his son talk to the feds even sent the boy to a relative's home the relative a more down to Earth type told the boy to talk to someone even his father would trust. Pat donned her familiar Black duster Ranger badge, and out fit. Purdy shuddered the tall lean and very tan Dark Ranger Passed him in the hall way of The Pheonix field office. Kim Smiled as she and Riley passed him. Kim handed Her a green tea, and Pat went into the room with the two boys. "The feds called you?" One boy asked. Pat smiled . "No your uncle did. He knows your father hates the feds and even if it could save a life he's afraid to talk to them." Pat relpied.  
"Tell me what you saw." She said. "Take it slow." The two boys nodded, and reveiwed the tape with her telling her everything they saw. "First these military types showed up too over this old ware house near our home, They secured and and started making some kind of a set up inside the warehouse. The place looked like the next generation enterprise bridge. They had this room set up sound proofed and every thing. Then this van showed up and they unloaded a huge crate. Then this general guy showed up and we got up in the rafters of the ware house and watched as they opened the crate and saw that they had this guy in there in a cage. He looked all dopped up. The boy said. They tied him in this chair and hooked him up to one of the machines.  
Then they took this cylinder out of the General's brief case, Just like you see it there." We got made and had to leave but we saw enough to know that what ever they were doing it wasn't good for that guy they were doing it to." Pat nodded as she looked at the two boys. they were right the man they saw didn't look good . Pat looked up at Kim Who came over to her." Pat had noticed the monitor, that was shown in the back ground, The boys were released. Pat was looking at the Video Purdy had come in when Pat froze a frame showing a very clear shot of one of the monitors.  
She was looking at something. Kim looked at her "What is it?" Sheridan asked. "I'm not sure." Riley said back Purdy looked at them surprised the two had. Suddenly changed from english to another language. Pat Riley looked at the frozen frame and began enlarging the monitor image and cleaning it up. The Feds were simply watching the pair. Purdy looked at The director. "I've worked with Riley and Sherridan they are thorough in their investigation." Peterson told him. "Working With the Texas Rangers is like heaven for us." The director smiled. They don't say anything until they have something and Riley is one of the most thorough Texas Rangers I've ever met." Purdy nodded. "Where are they?" Purdy asked. "They went down to the tech department. Riley wanted to get a little more info on this video. " A field agent told them. "See there she's on the scent already." The director said. Purdy went into a near by waiting room, he sat there wondering just what Pat was on to. Kim followed her to the Tech Lab . " Great warrioress how can a humble tech be of service?" The man in the lab asked. "I have been presented with an impossability." She said. "First I need this image magnified and an id, on that face. Then I need a little theoretical on the kind of program that it would take to create that immage and how it might work." Pat told him. "Oh man talk about making the parting the red sea look easy." The tech laughed. "But I could bounce it around the federal geek net," Riley accepted his answer but she was looking at the two men, outside the lab her hearing picking up on the conversation. "Janus isn't going to like this, Purdy is playing a dangerous game." One said. "But this Ranger and her partner could lead us to Johnny Smith. We could take them all out in one sweep." The second added. The two men looked at each other When Riley and Sheridan left the lab with a print out of the face that was on the monitor. Pat looked at Kim. "There's not a lot of people we can trust in here. Get Purdy and Let's get out of here." She said. Sheridan, looked at Pat's eyes there was something in her expression that told her partner that they might not be leaving that building easily. They got back and told Purdy that it was time to go. The director was on the phone, and everyone else was working on what ever. Purdy and Sheridan, looked at Pat's tense expression. "What's going on?" Purdy asked. " We'll talk later big bear." Pat said. I need you to be quiet." Pat said. She tlted her head listening to the conversations switching from left to right until she was focused on one call in partcular. "Did you get the information we sent you? It would appear that whoever has Smith also has some kind of computer program. Riley has been her very helpful if not for her we'd never have come across this information. Yes we stil... Uh let me call you back." Pat knew they'd have very little time and got her partner and Purdy out of the building and well away. Then getting out of the area. Kim looked at her partner. "So now what?" Kim asked. Purdy looked at them, "Pat Pulled up and Gave Purdy a business card " I think you should get out of the way Big Bear, this is going to get messy." She told him. Purdy looked at her, " A chocolate company?" He asked. Pat smiled. "Ask for Trent Malloy in custom orders give him this address." You'll be picked up. You'll be safe." Pat told him. Purdy did as he was told and was picked up only a few minutes later." There was something in Pat's tone that brokered no arguement. The Dark Ranger was not going to prove easy for who ever this was. but Purdy could tell Pat and Kim both sensed a threat. When he left the pair were checking supplies and maps.

Johnny woke to find himself warmly wrapped in a blanket, the dimmly lit room looked like a hospital room He sighed wondereing what had happened? Had he had some sort of siezure or was he hurt some other way ? He turned his head but saw no one in the room with him. His whole body felt like lead, He couldn't move much. The window showed it was still dark out side. he blinked as he tried to comprehend just where he was . Then he saw he had no watch no way to tell what time it really was. and he began to remember something else the cabin ten sudden sting to the back of his neck and the thorn he pulled out then he fell limp as a fish to the floor . after that slight images faces Janus then others he didn't know. "What's going on here?" He said aloud. The door to the room opened and a woman came in She wasn't dressed as a nurse. Johnny didn't recgonise her. She was dressed in a white bath robe. Johnny blinked as she came over and Seeing he was awake she turned and left again. Johnny blinked. Then two men came into the room. "What's going on why am I here?" He asked. " They left again silently." A short time later he was brought food and water . Grateful for this he ate, quietly though he still watched the door. It was quiet outside the room he was in too quiet certainly There was someone out there He found himself unrestrained. So he got up and looked out into the hallway. The place seemed deserted. But he also noticed this didn't quite look like a hopsital. Hearing voices he watched as two men with guns came around the corner and walked up to the only door he saw and scanned a pass card then punched in a code and the door opened. Then closed again He tried the door But it wouldn't budge "great Just great, even with a card key he'd still need the code. He looked around thinking for a moment. Then he felt his head aching dully. "What have they been doing to me?" he thought "There has to be a way out of here." Johnny sighed and went back to his room there hall way offered no other hiding places and he Hadn't see fewer that two men at a time , in the hall way "What sort of a place is this?" He thought. Time passed as Johnny sat there trying to think of a way to get out of this place. All his abilities had shown him was the same images Janus and then those others so many others. He thought about this he tried to focus on these but the memories slipped through his mental grasp. There were numerous Questions, running through his mind. "What was happening? Who had him and why? who were these other people he'd been seeing? How did they connect with Janus?" He looked at the room just a bed a bathroom with a shower. He sighed. "What would be done to him, once he was no longer of use to who ever had him?" Johnny looked at the window. "Shouldn't it be getting lighter outside?" He looked out at the scene and saw this place wasn't above ground! Seeing the walls of this place he could tell it was Not a natural cave this was a man made area. He looked at the scene below and then noticed the chair in the glassed in room. The Techs working around it meticulously hooking up cables and the group of men walking around looking at the scene with calm satisfaction. the eldest of them looked up at Johnny. Then just went on with what they were doing. Johnny paced the room while outside he was being watched on a monitor. "He looks agitated." A medic told the men grouped around him. Another fingered a button "I could sedate him again." The first turned to the second. "No we need him awake." came a voice from behind them. "I want him to see to remember." Then the other ambled away. The medics watched creeped out by the other man who their employer had believed in, enough to help him find another way to change the future.

In the future The Camp guards were looking in at their charge no longer with hate. He was the barometer by which time line changes were being measured. Walt too had a lot of curiosity. What was happening in the past to this man that was changing the time line? soon he had an answer. Johnny had seen his past self he was being held somewhere. "I think it was a lab." He said Walt noticed how his friend looked the confused child like expresssion he had on his face. "A lab? Where?" He asked. Walt looked at Purdy then his watch. "O.k. what ever's happening is definitely happening in the past." He told Purdy. The reverend now a leader nodded. "I agree and what ever this change is, it can't be bad for us it could be that we are seeing this reversal of events Because of what ever is going on in that lab." Purdy agreed. Johnny is reverting to his pre disaster personality and appearence." The two men left the cell and Johnny followed obediently. "O.k. Iwas a bit hasty in saying we should shoot him. But I'm not letting him out of the cage until I know what's going on." Walt said. Purdy noticed Johnny was thinking Images flashed past his mind's eye. Faces he didn't know but they had everything to do with what had happened to his world.


	3. Chapter 3

The Pass Chapter 3 

Greg Stillson had been watching Malcolm Janus as he paced the small office. There had been dozens of sudden scandals that The congressman didn't think about having them effect on him and his campaign. But the way Janus was acting There was something wrong. The other man finally tired settled into a chair. "I can tell that you have your own troubles Mr. Janus, but I just have to wonder what's going on?" Greg said. "There have been certain events that might impact your future as a politician. Janus told him. "The question is who's responsible for these events"  
Greg sat and nodded as he looked at the closed file folder on the desk in front of him. "Have your people had any luck locating Johnny Smith?" Greg asked. " no there's been no sign of Mr. Smith since the day the Dark Ranger showed up in Cleaves Mills." Janus replied as he met Greg's gaze. Greg looked at him. " Then you can't rule out that Johnny Smith might have changed his strategy. That he's behind what ever's happening. I told you to kill that freak. Now he's found a place to hide and a way to strike back. " Greg had that look on his face the one that said. "You messed up not me." The powerbroker sighed . " But let's not dwell on the past find him kill him and this will go away."Greg said Janus had to admit that this time Stillson was right."But it may already be too late." Greg sighed as he returned to work and Janus stopped in his tracks. "If Smith has been feeding information to the Justice Department, the water is already chummed and the sharks are circling." The Congressman said. Janus left the room, suddenly everything had changed. He strode down the hall to the elevators and was soon on his way to the latest victim of the new scandal wave. When he got to genutech, the place was locked up tighter than Fort Knox! It was clear from the notice on the dooir that the company was closed and every last person from the top researchers to the Janitors had been arrested The impressive steel and glass tower above him was being scoured for evidence of the terrible crimes this company had been committing. Later the Director of The FBI held a press conference. "It was brought to our attention over the last few months that there was something going on in the biotech industry that is not in the best interests of our citizens, Today that whisper and an almost unprovable conspiracy, has been found to be fact. Today across the nation FBI agents are finally able to make arrests and bring to justice those firms that for many years have been in the fore front of this conspiracy. With this we have discovered networks that supply human subjects for these experiments! Americans Citizens were experimented upon, Some were mental patients who had been abandoned by their families, others were Homeless, or runaways People in Nursing homes, And even illlegal immigrants have been exposed to painful and life changing experiments that have ruined their lives." Janus didn't need to hear any more He turned off his television and looked at the clock it was near seven A.M. The paper arrived and he saw that yet another of his employers was on their way to jail. Still others had left the country not waiting for the axe to fall on them. Janus knew the game was all but over and he focused his hate on one target Johnny Smith. He packed a bag and headed for the last place Smith had been seen. Pheonix Arizona. But it was already too late.

Where was he? What had happened to him? How had he come to be there?" The last thing he had heard was The two Black Clad figures "Our task here is done." Then he passed out and Woke up on the floor. everyone everything was gone! Yet he remembered the faces of Janus' employers their illegal experiments, and other criminal dealings everything! Who ever this was had given him what he needed to stop Armegeddon! He found himself only a mile from home. His information sent out under the name Paladin, made a sensation in the news. No one knew or would ever find out who Palidin was. Johnny smiled as He watched the men behind Janus, arrested. none got away He had sent everything in one felled swoop It hit so fast the whole group had no idea what was happening.


End file.
